Here Is Why You Should Be on Google Plus
A lot has been said about Google’s social network that has recently celebrated its first anniversary. Unlike most of the services the tech giant develops, this service was welcomed by the media and by users with criticisms rather than praise. Even though Google Plus now has 250 million users and some cool features (that nobody else has), it is no Facebook killer. A report published by digital rating company comScore suggests that Google Plus users spend 3.3 minutes on the platform per month. Compare that to the seven hours people spend each month on Facebook and the two hours they spend on Twitter.
But this post is not going to focus on bashing Google Plus some more. On the contrary, it is going to focus on the positive side. Here is why your business should be on Google Plus:
It Allows You to “Circle” Your Customers: You can use Google Plus to give your customers superior service. If you have a diverse portfolio of products or services, you can divide customers into Circles. This will allow you to share with each Circle only information and promotions that are tailored to the member’s needs, rather than flooding them with irrelevant information about products that they have no interest in.
Another tool that can make communicating with customers easier is Hangouts. Google Plus’s video chat tool lets you communicate with customers online, offer them face-to-face service, share documents, etc. More importantly, just like they do in many call centers, you can record the conversation and save it for your records.
SEO Boost: All of Google’s public-facing tools are integrated into Google Plus: search, Google Places, Google Maps, etc. Hence, an active business profile on Google Plus is likely to lead to a boost in your business’s search engine optimization. This is specifically important for local businesses that would like to attract casual customers. For example, restaurants are rated on Google Places based upon their Zagat score combined with users’ rating on Google Plus.
Integration: Google Plus is integrated into the Google services portfolio in a way that allows you to manage your business more efficiently. Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, YouTube, Google Analytics, and other internally facing Google products work much more smoothly with Google Plus. This integration allows you to manage and share information about your business while staying on one platform rather than switching between different ones to achieve the same task.
Google Plus is not perfect, but no one is. Just like many of Google’s service, it is very business-oriented and therefore can be a great communication tool for SMEs. If I had to pinpoint one huge problem with it, is that not enough people are using it. But you can act to change that, not for the sake of Google, but for the sake of your business. If you see what I described here as something that can benefit your business, encourage your customers to start using it.
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